They lost me at the intro. Terrible Obama impersonation (usually Fred does better). As in every SNL sketch, no actual jokes, and of course it dragged on wayyyy too long, with the 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!' dropped in at a totally illogical point in the bit.

The issue is percentage -- what percentage of the comedy is actually funny. Upright Citizens Brigade was around 40%. KITH maybe 50 at its very best. Mr. Show 30-40. Best SNL never got over 30. Its DAMN hard to generate that much comedy material and have it actually funny.

I don't watch SNL so I have no idea how funny it is now -- IMHO it was best in the Phil Hartman/Mike Meyers/Jon Lovitz/Dana Carvey high point -- just when Carvey was still funny and Meyers was at his height -- late in the Al Franken Decade.

Web video is the greatest thing that could ever happen to sketch comedy -- the funny shiat on command, nobody looks up "the Big Ear Family".

"Jizz in My Pants" was DAMN funny.

/hell, Python (series) at its best never made it to 30//Airplane was maybe 20 but brilliantly threw so much, so fast, the result is in the 70-80 range timewise.

Last night's episode was one of the best of the season (taking maybe 2nd place to Charles Barkley). The only really horrible sketches were the court stenographer on a typewriter and the "Don't make me sing!" lady (which might have been decent if it weren't just a retread of every other awkward Kristen Wiig character). The Closet Organizer was absurd, but the callback in the final skit made both of them awesome. The monologue was average, but the digital short was great. So, a solid effort.

The best part of Weekend Update: "The Republicans have spent this whole time saying that Obama is all talk, and then they offer to fight him in a format that is all talk."

I don't watch SNL so I have no idea how funny it is now -- IMHO it was best in the Phil Hartman/Mike Myers/Jon Lovitz/Dana Carvey high point -- just when Carvey was still funny and Myers was at his height -- late in the Al Franken Decade.

THIS.

That cast was small but extremely versatile and their writers were pretty damn awesome too. Jan Hooks was probably the best female SNL cast member the show has had...well besides Gilda Radner who was great too.

/Doesn't get Kristin Wiig...she does the same character over and over//SNL is hit or miss these days...maybe if they had a legitimate Obama impersonator and not revolve around Wiig and Samberg the entire time, it may be good (though I do like Samberg)

No, sorry, that was not funny. Nor was it even original. And subby gets a -1 for using the "Amusing" tag to refer to anything SNL after 1982.

I keep telling people at work who watch it to keep a tally, and when the number of jokes based on various bodily functions drops below 60% I will start watching it again. So far the lowest total I have had presented to me has been 78%. So all you SNL flag-wavers can STFU about how creative and original it is, and how hard it is to do live sketch comedy because the numbers indicate that they aren't even trying to do anything but amuse middle school kids. That isn't comedy, it is pandering.

No, sorry, that was not funny. Nor was it even original. And subby gets a -1 for using the "Amusing" tag to refer to anything SNL after 1982.

I keep telling people at work who watch it to keep a tally, and when the number of jokes based on various bodily functions drops below 60% I will start watching it again. So far the lowest total I have had presented to me has been 78%. So all you SNL flag-wavers can STFU about how creative and original it is, and how hard it is to do live sketch comedy because the numbers indicate that they aren't even trying to do anything but amuse middle school kids. That isn't comedy, it is pandering.

/lawn

You must be a laugh riot then, especially at parties where you regurgitate dated 80's jokes about Reagan the the U.S.S.R.